I Don’t Know You

Reference: v.2 Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord and I will not let Israel go.” (TNIV Bible)

Explore: I’m very good at remembering people’s names and faces… if I’ve met the person before. My difficulty comes when I meet someone who is well known in a particular field, and yet I have no idea who they are. I just treat them like an everyday normal person until a friend will point out to me, “You know who they are right?!” Clearly they are exasperated that I would treat someone so special like a normal person, but to me they were just normal! Why would I treat them any differently when I didn’t know who they were?

Application: I think as Christians we expect non-believers to treat God in some special way, and yet why would they when they don’t believe? It’s like me treating some random person like royalty when to me they look like every other guest at the party. When Moses went to Pharaoh he was asking him to do something extraordinary and why? Because Moses’ god had asked him to. It’s no surprise how Pharaoh responded. Why should he obey a god he doesn’t even believe in? We need to be aware of this when we chat to non-believers as well. We can’t just expect them to act like a Christian if they don’t have the knowledge of who they are in Christ. Hopefully this helps us to get a bit of a perspective from the non-believer’s point of view and to be patient and understanding when non-believers act in a way that we find difficult and offensive.

Prayer: Lord God, help us to be compassionate towards others, particularly those who do not have you in their lives, so that we can be an example of You. Amen.

What is the best way to respond when others behave inappropriately?

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Linda started theological studies in 1999 in Australia. After working for ten years in various church ministries, she now works as the breakfast producer at 89.9 LightFM - the Christian radio station in Melbourne, Australia. She writes blogs every day about passages she is currently reading in the Bible.
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